I loved this novel -- I'm hosting my book club tonight, and will definitely recommend it. Not only is the story exciting and well-paced (I had a hard time putting it down for the full 800 pages), but the characters are well-written and sympathetic, and the underlying message -- that life is full of surprising twists, and no matter how good or bad our intentions are, we can't predict how our decisions will play out over the long run -- was well-illustrated. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was that the last chapter left such a bad taste in my mouth. It's an epilogue where the protagonist speaks directly to the reader with a "here's the moral of the story!" pedantry that would have been best omitted altogether. The rest of the novel makes it's point just fine: We're all little goldfinches, chained to the post of fate.